If another world existed
by Alja
Summary: If another world existed... would everything still be like in the manga? Where would Team Mustang stand? Would they even work together? Would the Elrics know them? Would they be happy? Late 19th to early 20th century University AU, based on art found on tumblr (link in my profile).


**Title:** If another world existed...

**Summary:** If another world existed... would everything still be like in the manga? Where would Team Mustang stand? Would they even work together? Would the Elrics know them? Would they be happy? Late 19th to early 20th century University AU, based on art found on tumblr (link in my profile).

**Disclaimer:** All characters belong to Hiromu Arakawa.

**Dedicated to:** goetterspeiseftw on tumblr. She requested a story that would fit the above mentioned picture and it was supposed to be a birthday present... which didn't turn out that well and I'm very sorry :( I hope you can still enjoy it! And also everyone else -

**Please enjoy!**

* * *

It was only 6 am when a certain blonde's arms wound around the torso of her still sleeping partner and she pressed a soft kiss onto his shoulder.

"Good morning," she muttered into his ear, drawing him closer to herself, but she was only met with a grunt in reply.  
She rolled her eyes in amusement - it's not like she hadn't anticipated that.

"Roy," she cooed lovingly and one of her arms traveled slowly under her companion's nightdress, stroking the abs hidden underneath it. She always looked at awe in them whenever he undressed - not that this was the only attractive trait he held (and not that she minded, either), she just wondered when he was able to maintain such mass when all he ever did was stand in his lab or brood over the resulting paperwork.  
But even her soft administrations weren't enough, so she thought of a different, new approach. She propped herself up on her right elbow and a smile graced her features as she used her left hand to play with the soft locks at the nape of Roy's neck.

"Wake up, Professor Mustang."

That finally drew a groggy groan out of the man and he turned onto his back begrudgingly, eyes closed tightly as he stretched a little.

"Good morning, sleepy-head."

"Good morning, honey," Roy finally answered with one eye open, his voice still thick with sleep, and he sat up just enough to press a quick peck onto his lover's lips before he fell back onto his pillow

"Professor Mustang," he repeated, a satisfied smirk on his lips, "ah, I love the sound of it. Have we already celebrated my State doctorate?"

Riza pushed her blanket off and swung her feet over the side of their shared bed to stride over to the other side of the room.

"Yes, we have. Three times," she answered him matter-of-factly, but she knew her cold demeanor couldn't fool him and his grin only grew as she proceeded to make her bed.

"Only three times? It's still early, we could-" He wasn't even able to end his sentence as Riza had already thrown a pillow into his face.

"No," she stated simply, reaching for the small stash of her clothes hidden in the corner of Roy's wardrobe.

While not prohibited directly, it was rather unusual for a Professor to date one of his research associates, even though Riza already held her doctorate in veterinary medicine and thus wasn't dependent on him as a supervisor. Still, both decided to take it slow to avoid any false accusations of favoritism.

"Oh come on, Riza!" she now heard him whine as she proceeded to grab some underwear and a towel. "Hey, we could shower together to save time-"

"No!"

* * *

In the end, Riza had allowed Roy to join her under the strict condition that all body contact served the purpose of cleaning and nothing more; she didn't reprimand him for the few kisses he stole here and there, though.

Now they sat in Roy's small kitchenette, several folders spread among the breakfast dishes, and Roy sipped on his coffee as he eyed the names on his list of his new Ph. D. students and co-workers that he had mostly taken over from Professor Grumman - who had not only held his professorship before but was also his own tutor back when he was studying for his diploma.

"Let's see if I remember the names and persons correctly, shall we?" he asked Riza over the rim of his reading glasses and smirked as he read the first name on his list out loud.

"Riza Hawkeye, Doctor of microbiology, veterinarian. I don't know about you, but I think her name sounds really **hot**."

The woman in question only scoffed at him.  
"Oh really? I heard she is very strict and mean enough to even make her superiors cringe."  
As if to emphasize her words, she swatted down the newspaper with a loud _flick_, startling Roy. While she had to suppress a grin, he frowned and turned back to his list.

"Vato Falman's the scientific assistent?"

"Yes", Riza answered him, spreading butter onto a slice of bread. "He's the tall, scrawny one with graying hair. He's been working for Grumman for a very long time now and his memory is remarkable. He keeps the lab organized so please try to keep it that way."

Roy lowered his list and eyed Riza reproachfully.

"You act like I'm an idiot."

"Better safe than sorry," she answered with a grin, but leaned over to kiss him in apology which he reciprocated enthusiastically before he continued.

"Alright, three aspiring doctors are in my team as well. Heymans Breda I know, he's the chubby one that had the interview with me. So for now, he's the only student working directly for me, right?"

"For now," Riza agreed while she pushed a sandwich towards Roy, knowing he would forget to eat if she wasn't there, "but there are two new graduate students due for an interview today."

"Two at once?"

She saw him raise his brows as he grabbed the sandwich and brought it to his lips to bite a mouthful off.

"They are brothers," Riza started to explain and grabbed another slice of bread to tend to her hunger as well, "and apparently they have a personal reason to jump into the tuberculosis research."

Roy's eyes darkened quickly on Riza's words.

"That's not good. Things get too complicated when you have a personal motivation. You get too involved into your research-"

"Like us?"

He looked down, avoiding her eyes. Of course she was. Both of their families had a long history with the topic of their research: Tuberculosis.

After Riza's maternal grandmother, Elizabeth Grumman, died from it, her grandfather invested himself in the search of a cure while his daughter, Riza's mother Emily, chose to become a nurse and help soothe the symptoms of the infected patients.  
It was in a hospital where she met her future husband and father to her future daughter, and it was the same place where Emily contracted tuberculosis and died when Riza was 8 years old.  
The family broke apart after Emily had died. Her father dove even deeper into his research and Berthold, her widowed husband, gave up his position in the hospital to join a research group as well, researching for a possible vaccine as he feared for the life of his daughter.  
Ironically, both grandfather and father grew emotionally distant to Riza because of it and it was what made her want to become a scientist, too, one day, to pick up the broken pieces of her family.

For Roy, there was nothing left to pick up. Both of his parents had caught tuberculosis when he was three years old, forcing his aunt to take him and raise him. After he found out about his parents' cause of death, the teen insisted to go into the medical field to dedicate his life to the research of tuberculosis and sooner or later, he first stumbled upon Hawkeye as a mentor and, after Hawkeye tragically died in a fire in his laboratory, he has been taken under Grumman's wing.

That was how Roy and Riza met. Roy had been 18 years old and during research for one of Berthold's classes in the library, he stumbled over the petite, 15 year old girl and they bonded quickly.

Over the years, the bond between them grew, but it never evolved into something romantic; both were too blind by the unprocessed grief over the death of their families and too focused on reaching the goal of their research. It took Grumman several years, too, to realize that Roy and Riza were the only people to make the other truly happy. After a a long series of teasing and well-meant advice by Grumman, Roy had finally asked Riza out on the day he received his State doctorate.

"Like us," Roy sighed

It had come with a price.

While their relationship had only begun, time had already run out for them. At 40 years, Riza was rather young, but the first symptoms of her menopause had already started to develop and her as of yet unknown desire for children has been quenched rather forcefully with this revelation. Only then they had realized their past and personal commitment to their research had kept them from living their lives.

Roy reached out for Riza's hand, but she pulled it away to avoid the touch.

"Continue. We have to leave soon."

Roy knitted his eyebrows together, but he complied and looked back down at his list, adjusting his glasses.

"Jean Havoc, the second aspiring doctor. He was..?"

"Tall, blond, well-built," Riza filled in the blanks immediately "smoker, too," she wrinkled her nose in disgust and a slight shiver ran down her back, "I hope he won't dare to smoke in the lab."

Roy dropped his papers again and he jutted his lower lip out in a pout, trying to play Riza's weak point.

"Tall, blond, well-built, huh?" he repeated innocently, but as he realized that it didn't work out (she knew him long enough after all), he began to straighten his posture to accentuate his muscles.

Her gaze dropped for a second and Roy grinned victoriously.

Riza then eased out of her seat quickly, rounded the breakfast table and sat down on his lap, legs crossed and upper bodies turned to one another as she started to loosen the first three buttons on Roy's dress shirt.

"You want me to gush all over you, right?" she asked him, her hands traveling south and his breathing starting to get labored. "You want me to tell you how strong and handsome _you_ are," she purred and her lips grazed Roy's ear as his hands encircled her waist tightly and nodded quickly, "well, I'm not."

Roy's hands fell limp next to his body and he looked up at Riza, gaping.

"Your ego is big enough, I don't need to boost it. Now get done with your list or we'll be late."

Still, she didn't return to her seat and made herself comfortable on his lap as she reached over the table to grab her sandwich. While she took a bite off of it, Roy encircled her waist with his right arm to steady her, and with his left hand, he held the list up to his face.

"Kain Fuery... he was the small, bespectacled one?"

"Yes," Riza answered between two bites, and brought her forefinger to her chin, lost in thought, "he's the link for our cooperation with Professor Hakuro's group. They are working on a new kind of microscope which is supposed to use specific wave lengths. We'll try out how useful this might be our research and whether it can provide us with new information on our research objects."

Roy nodded. "Very well. Excellent choice, I didn't expect less from Grumman. He made the change of chair very comfortable for me."

He discarded the list finally and shoved the rest of his sandwich hurriedly into his mouth, chewing on it, before he nudged Riza with his hand.

"I'm done with my list."

"I wouldn't have realized."

He nudged her again, this time with his knee so she bounced off of his lap slightly. She turned her head to him, annoyance written over her face. He just grinned in response.

"Don't I deserve some sort of reward?"

Riza rolled her eyes, but after checking the time on the clock (and determining that they had a few minutes to spare), she turned on his lap and her lips met his.

* * *

"Brother, do you think Professor Mustang will take us as his graduate students?"

The blonde lowered his résumé with trembling hands and looked over his right shoulder to his older brother.  
Both young men sat on the stairs leading up to the old University building. It was a quarter to eight already and things started to get hectic as students as well as tutors rushed into the building, intent on being on time for their 8 o'clock classes.

Contrary to this hassle, the second blonde brought a cup to his lips, sipped the hot coffee, and enjoyed the warmth that spread through his chest.

"Relax, Al," he answered his little brother and his eyes wandered over a young, tall man, who deliciously took a last smoke before entering the building. "We are good. We are damn good. We are probably the best in our year, Mustang would be a total fool not to take us as his students!"

"I hope you are right, brother", Alphonse answered and a small smile tugged on his lips. He finally put away the résumé he had studied over and over again and leaned back, too.

The brothers spent some minutes in peaceful silence, the calm before the storm. Now it was all or nothing. They had grown up in a small town called Resembool, alone with their mother who worked as a nurse. Their surroundings were always filled with science; their father had left a lot of science books behind and their best friend Winry's family worked as the only doctors in town. It was a given for them to catch a liking for science as soon as they were out of their diapers and it only deepened when their mother died. They spent their adolescence wanting to research the disease and understand why it happened - and they wanted to save other people from the same fate.

"Are we doing the right thing, Al?"

Alphonse turned back to his brother Edward who stared into his cup of coffee absentmindedly, and he smiled.

"I'm sure of it. We might have started because of mother, but we always loved this. We loved helping Winry and granny, we loved reading in father's books, we enjoyed every class and lab we had to take on our course. We came so far and we enjoyed the steps. We _are_ doing the right thing."

Edward smiled, too, but before he could answer, the soft patter of a pair of paws swept Alphonse's concentration away.

"Oh, hello little boy! Brother, look!"Edward gazed over Alphonse's shoulder and right in front of his legs, there sat a fluffy Shiba Inu whose tail thumped back and forth excitedly. "You're a beautiful boy," Alphonse uttered happily and began petting the dog which it seemed to enjoy that.

Since Alphonse was absorbed in his own world now, Edward leaned back against the pillar he was sitting in front of, and his gaze focused on the pair approaching the University. It consisted of a black haired man in a gray suit, a red folder clenched tightly at his right side while his left arm was occupied by a beautiful woman in white. Her hair flew freely in the soft breeze and she also held a couple of folders close to her chest. It was only when the two of them got aware of Edward's glance that the woman unwound her arm from the man's (he seemed a little disheartened by it) and she dropped a step, following him now instead of accompanying him.

Edward found that to be odd, but something else intrigued him about that pair, especially about the man. It wasn't a déjà vu or anything, but -

The dog suddenly yelped.  
"Oh, I'm so sorry, boy!", he heard Alphonse's voice laced with concern. "Your ear hurts, huh? We should find your owner, let's check your collar..."

\- but he couldn't shake off the feeling that those two would fill out a very important role in his life sooner or later. It only intensified when the man caught his glance and stared right back at him, his companion forgotten for a second.

"Wait, Black Hayate, stop!"

Edward only saw a flurry of black and white before he broke up the mutual staring to look at the man's companion. The dog, called Black Hayate, it seemed, had run to the blond woman and continued to run in circles around her feet, causing her skirt to fly up and she tried to keep it from exposing her. After a few seconds, she was finally in control of the situation and passed her folders to the man before she squatted down to the dog.

"Hello handsome," she greeted him with a smile and got a small, kind "woof" as a reply. Just like Alphonse did earlier, she started crawling the dog's head, but stopped quickly and her brows furrowed. She turned to the brothers, eying them with a piercing gaze that made the hair on Edward's neck stand up.

"Is this your dog?"

Both shook their heads.

"His ear is infected," she added as an afterthought and her hands grasped Hayate's head and ear so gently he didn't yelp this time, "it's visible from afar and his owner should be aware of it and treat this poor thing. It's a wonder he doesn't have more pain..."

Her caramel eyes searched for the black orbs of her companion. After a few seconds, he nodded and turned back to the building after smiling softly at her. He took a step up to the door, but seemed to remember Edward for he threw a last puzzled glance back at him before he finally entered the University.

The woman on the other hand took some steps back down to the boys and Black Hayate trotted down next to her willingly.

"His name tag doesn't leave any contact information. Have you seen where this dog came from?"

The woman had a pleasant voice, Edward decided, and while his brother tried to provide her with every piece of information she was asking of them, he kept staring at her. For some reason, it made him feel at ease.

"Alright, I will take him with me for now, I can't leave him like this," the woman concluded and the Shiba Inu was already in her arms, completely at ease - he even nuzzled into her neck and she clearly had to suppress a chuckle.

"It's late, you boys. You sure have courses, you should go."

"It's fine, Madam, actually, we are a little early. We have an appointment at 8.30 with a certain Professor Mustang," Alphonse provided, and Edward was sure that he saw a small spark in the woman's eyes upon the mention of the name.

"Is that so?" she mused, smiling at each brother individually, "Well then, I wish you the best of luck, boys. Don't be late."

She nodded at the boys (as her arms were occupied) and entered the University, too. It was only when Alphonse nudged Edward's arm that he realized he was still staring after her.

"What is it, brother? Is something with the lady?"

"The lady and her companion," Edward muttered, taking another sip of his now cold coffee, "call me crazy, but I feel like this won't be the last time we've seen those two."

* * *

**Author's note:** So, as you can see, I tried to fit this around the time of the 1890s to the 1900s, with tuberculosis still being a big thing. You can kind of imagine Team Mustang to be some of the leading researchers back then (for developing the first vaccine and finding that tuberculosis is also spread through non pasteurized milk - though this will definitely be something Edward finds out :D).

Please imagine this to be a parallel universe to the mangaverse. I like to imagine that in each parallel world, Ed and Al will eventually meet Roy and Riza one way or another, that's why Roy and Ed feel weird while staring at each other since they are destined to meet in this world, just like in any other world of my imagination.

So during my research, I stumbled upon Jean-Marie Camille Guérin, one of the two scientists who developed the first tuberculosis vaccine. He was a veterinarian, bacteriologist and immunologist, and his first profession reminded me of The Flame and Hawk's Eye (another author here - please check out her stories!), so I decided to make Riza a veterinarian additionally to her profession as a microbiologist as a nod to both of them.


End file.
